Swiss Via Alpina Day 4: Engelberg to Grindelwald
Tuesday 6/27/23
Engelberg to Grindelwald, 38.7 miles, 10,912ft gain, 10,656ft loss, 3:57am start, 14 hrs 45 min (Strava Activity I | Strava Activity II)
It was a surreal hike from Engelberg to Engstlenap with fog swirling about and passing through an eery, empty ski resort by a glacial lake with no one else awake or around. I walked green ridges with steep drop-offs on either side and snow streaking the mountains around me, and I had the trail all to myself. It was such a neat morning.
The terrain wasn't as extreme in terms of steep ups and downs, and I made very good time this day. So much, that I allowed myself to stop at a cafe at the top of a ski lift and sit down for a breakfast of fig pie with fresh cream, coffee, and a Fanta. I was glad that the terrain eased up (relatively speaking) as I felt wrecked from yesterday.
I kept wrestling with what kind of experience I wanted out of this trip. Yesterday was so surprisingly difficult, then looking at the rest of the itinerary I’d planned for myself, I started to feel dismayed. I’d planned to hike from early in the morning to dinner time every day, but after how difficult yesterday was, I wasn’t sure if the plan I’d made for myself was possible without hiking more extreme hours. But I didn’t come out here to be super hardcore and destroy myself. I wanted to have fun and enjoy Switzerland. But I also was excited about completing the entire trail and only had a finite amount of time to do so before my flight home. To make matters worse, I checked the week forecast and saw that it was 100% chance of heavy rain on Friday. No matter what progress I made, Friday might be a wash. I got overwhelmed thinking about what was ahead, so just tried to focus on the task at hand for today: getting to Grindelwald.
I said hello to Sherlock Holmes in statue form in Meiringen before starting the climb up Grosse Scheidegg. I think I was scarred from the difficulty of yesterday's climb, because I kept expecting every other climb to be just as hard. But this one was pretty easygoing- relative term! The mountains began to rise dramatically around me as I entered a new landscape, getting closer to the town of Grindelwald in the shadow of the north face of the Eiger.
I took the luxury of stopping again for a hot carrot soup and grilled sausage hut at a lodge on the way up. Being a Tuesday night I didn't think I'd have trouble finding lodging in Grindelwald, but I underestimated its popularity. A few miles out from town, I ended up dialing up nine different inns before finding one that had availability. They told me I was lucky that they had something, and that it was only a basic room in the back with a separate entrance (my guess was that it was more of an employee room), but I told them thank you and I'd gladly take it.
Upon arrival, the hosts asked where I had hiked from that day and their eyes widened when I told them Engelberg, then they started asking more questions and I told them what I was up to, and they seemed excited and wanted to help. They were fully booked for dinner, but managed to squeeze me in. They told me to take my time and go shower/clean up, they showed me where I could do my laundry, and then when I told them how early I planned to leave in the morning, they asked the chefs in the kitchen to make me a takeaway breakfast for the next morning (ham and cheese on the most delicious fresh homemade wheat bread). And they didn't even charge me much for the room since it didn't have all the bells and whistles of their regular rooms. I felt so taken care of!
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